It might be said that a public servant is one whose duty is to protect the public good and whose creed is sworn singularly unto the culture within which it wishes to thrive. To complicate matters, "good" is almost always defined by culture, which in our day and age has been prone to leave generous room for definitions of any sort; this might in fact be the only "good" - in its own entitlement - consistently defined and practiced (although not consistently logical). This unfortunately makes it hard for anyone to decide what, if at anything all, to protect. It was therefore of little surprise to me today, when I had the honour of conversing with an eminent public servant, to discover that he was fundamentally an ardent disciple of John Dewey, whose thought (ironically), as one writer put, had aimed not at fixing the belief but at fixing the situation.
The important man still unflinchingly garners my deepest respect, and I suppose the culture - or any culture - survives because of selfless people like him who loyally heed its creed. But more than that, as we appoint and anoint to protect the public good, how much more shall we thus defend and debate the concept of "good" itself, to protect it too, and any hope of meaning at all?
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